Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother have been found guilty of murdering the 10-year-old before fleeing to Pakistan.
Sara was hooded, tied up, beaten with a cricket bat, burnt with an iron and even bitten in a “brutal” campaign of abuse in the weeks before her death on 8 August last year, the Old Bailey heard.
Her body was found two days later in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, after Urfan Sharif, 42, called police from Pakistan, where he had fled with the rest of his family.
The minicab driver sobbed during the call as he admitted “I’ve killed my daughter” and said “I beat her up too much” because “she was naughty”, adding: “I legally punished her, and she died.”
Police found a handwritten three-page note tucked under Sara’s pillow in which Sharif had written “Love You Sara” and “I killed my daughter by beating”.
Image: Sharif left a note under Sara’s pillow before fleeing the country. Pics: Surrey Police
“I am running away because I am scared but I promise that I will hand over myself and take punishment,” it said. “I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her but I lost it.”
Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and his brother, McDonald’s worker Faisal Malik, 29, along with five children, were captured on CCTV at Heathrow Airport, where they boarded a flight to Islamabad the day after Sara’s death.
Image: Sharif and Batool
While in hiding, Sara’s father and stepmother gave a video statement to Sky News in which she described her stepdaughter Sara’s death as an “incident” and said they were “willing to cooperate with the UK authorities and fight our case in court”.
Image: Sara Sharif’s body was found in bed at her home. Pic: Surrey Police
Sharif, Batool and Malik were arrested as they returned to Gatwick Airport on 13 September, and all of them pleaded not guilty to her murder and an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Sharif and Batool have now been found guilty of Sara’s murder. Batool could be heard sobbing in the dock after the verdicts.
Malik was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh, said he will sentence them on Tuesday next week, telling jurors the case had been “extremely stressful and traumatic”.
Image: The family fled to Pakistan. Pic: Surrey Police/PA
Image: The couple were arrested on a flight to Gatwick. Pic: Surrey Police
History of domestic abuse
Sharif had been arrested over allegations made by three different Polish women, including Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, between 2007 and 2010, including domestic violence and making threats to kill, but he was never charged.
Sara was born in 2013, but her parents split in an acrimonious break-up soon afterwards, with accusations of abuse made against each other in a custody battle.
In 2019, the family court eventually awarded custody to Sharif, who had by then divorced Sara’s mother and married Batool.
Neighbours of their small flat described hearing “shockingly loud” sounds of smacking followed by “gut-wrenching screams”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:46
What happened to Sara Sharif?
Last year, they moved to a three-bedroom house in Hammond Road, Woking, with Malik and a total of six young children where a new neighbour Judith Lozeron said the family were strangely quiet.
She told Sky News she got the feeling Sara was treated as “a bit of a servant” because she would see her doing chores, such as pegging out the washing and looking after other children.
“That isn’t really what a 10-year-old should be doing,” she said.
“I never saw her smile. I never saw her running, laughing or anything in the garden with the others.”
Prosecutors said Sara started wearing a hijab to hide her injuries, and the court heard she was taken out of school in April 2023 after teachers spotted bruises on her face and referred her to social services – but the case was closed after six days.
Image: Sara, aged four. Pic: Surrey Police
‘Such a special little soul’
A school friend said she saw locks on the bedroom doors when she went round to Sara’s to play.
“She was very happy and outgoing, and she always used to tell me, when she grows up, she likes to go to Los Angeles and be a model,” she told Sky News.
She said Sara told her she had fallen off her bike when she turned up at school with cuts and bruises on her face, adding: “She could have had them on her legs or arms but I couldn’t see them because she had long-sleeved tops on under her T-shirts and leggings under her skirts.”
Image: Sara ‘loved singing and dancing’. Pic: Surrey Police
Sara’s headteacher Jacquie Chambers said she was a “very caring, very confident little girl” who had the “cutest, biggest smile” and “absolutely loved singing and dancing”.
She said Sara would often talk of her dream of winning The X Factor and the school has now introduced a singing award in her memory.
“She was such a cheerful soul and I think that’s what’s really heartbreaking. She was such a special little soul,” she said.
“I don’t think I have ever felt so much sadness and I say that on behalf of all of the staff and the community. I think the shock was just immense.”
More than 70 injuries
Sara was found to have suffered more than 70 injuries, including “probable human bite marks”, 25 fractures, and bleeding on her brain, and her cause of death was given as “complications arising from multiple injuries and neglect”.
Prosecutors said all of the adults in the house were responsible for Sara’s death because one or two of them couldn’t have carried out the campaign of abuse without the complicity or assistance of others and none of them did anything to help.
Sharif initially claimed all the abuse happened while he was at work, blaming it on his “evil and psycho” wife.
But her barrister Caroline Carberry KC suggested she was “vulnerable” and a victim of “honour-based abuse”, forcing a surprise confession from Sharif in the witness box as he admitted killing his daughter by beating.
Image: The family home in Woking, Surrey. Pic: Surrey Police
Image: Sara wore hijab ‘to hide injuries’. Pic: Surrey Police
‘I take full responsibility’
Sharif told the jury he beat Sara with a cricket bat as she was bound with packing tape, throttled her with his bare hands, hit her over the head with a mobile phone, and even whacked her with a metal pole as she lay dying.
“I can take full responsibility. I accept every single thing,” he said before asking for the murder charge to be put to him again.
But after a break, Sharif insisted he was not guilty of the charge, saying: “I didn’t want to hurt her.”
He also denied inflicting the bites and burns, while Batool and Malik both chose not to give evidence.
Surrey Police said an inquest and a safeguarding review would now examine whether Sara was failed by the police, social services, the courts or the education system in the years and months leading up to her death.
Speaking outside the Old Bailey after the verdicts, Detective Chief Inspector Craig Emmerson said the case had “shocked and horrified” people around the world.
He said Sara’s young life was brought to an end by “brutal abuse” and “unspeakable violence” committed by Sharif and Batool, which Malik “did nothing to prevent”.
“The murder of a child is absolutely shocking, but the horrific nature of the abuse Sara suffered during her short life has made this case particularly disturbing,” he said.
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) specialist prosecutor Libby Clark said: “Sara was a happy, outgoing and lively child described as always laughing, who was cruelly abused and murdered by those closest to her.
“None of us can imagine how appalling and brutal Sara’s treatment was in the last few weeks of her short life. The injuries inflicted on her were absolutely horrendous.”
The first known victim of serial paedophile Richard Burrows has told Sky News he regrets not reporting his assault at the time to save others from “falling into the same trap”.
Burrows, 81, will learn his sentence at Chester Crown Court today after being convicted last month of dozens of sexual offences against young boys.
The judge told him it is “inevitable” he might never be released.
The former scout master had spent 27 years on the run, living in what he called “paradise” in Thailand, after stealing the identity of a friend and fleeing the UK when he was due in court in 1997.
Image: A police photo of Burrows from the 1990s. Pic: Cheshire Police
He was arrested when he arrived at Heathrow in March last year.
The trial heard that Burrows had obtained positions of authority and systematically abused boys from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
He had worked as a housemaster at a school for troubled boys and befriended other youngsters through amateur radio clubs.
One of those was his first victim, aged 14 at the time in the late 1960s, and now 71.
He told Sky News: “It’s been an awfully long time and after 57 years I’ve got to see the results at the end of it.
“It does actually feel like a weight’s been lifted. You hear that expression all through life, but it’s the first time ever really felt it.”
He described Burrows as a “devious, nasty creature”.
The man, who cannot be identified as he is the victim of a sexual offence, attended Burrows’s trial and delivered a victim impact statement at his sentencing.
He said he wanted to do this because of the regret he carries to this day.
“I wish I’d said something when it happened because I feel that, in retrospect, if I would have said something, then maybe it would have stopped other people from falling into the same trap that I did,” he added.
“But at that time, at that age, I thought I probably wouldn’t have been believed, and I felt too ashamed and embarrassed and even guilty to even mention it to anybody else. So, I didn’t, and I regret not doing that.”
Image: Photos of Burrows in Thailand. Pic: Cheshire Police
The man contacted police after seeing an appeal for help in finding the fugitive Burrows on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in 2011. It would be another decade before he was arrested.
He said: “I really begrudge him those 27 years. It’s 27 years and he’s just left a trail of wreckage behind him while he’s enjoying himself.
“It’s a shame he’s not got another 27 years to look forward to in jail.”
Although he was the earliest victim on the indictment at Burrows’s trial, like detectives from Cheshire Police, he believes there could be other victims who have not come forward.
He said: “Personally, I don’t think I was the first victim. I think that he was probably fairly well practiced in the art of what he was doing prior to my meeting him.”
Image: Burrows being met by police at Heathrow. Pic: Cheshire Police
Burrows was initially charged in May 1997 but failed to attend a hearing later that year.
He remained on the wanted list until police using facial recognition software matched him to a man using the name Peter Smith. He had stolen the identity of a terminally ill friend to obtain a passport.
After his conviction in March, judge Steven Everett told Burrows he had caused “untold distress and trauma to the victims and their families”.
The UK has joined US forces in attacking a Houthi target in Yemen for the first time since Donald Trump was re-elected.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the strikes took place on Tuesday as part of the government’s response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The ministry said careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings used by the Houthis to manufacture the sort of drones used to attack ships, located 15 miles south of the capital Sanaa.
RAF Typhoon FGR4s conducted strikes on several buildings using Paveway IV precision-guided bombs.
The planes had air refuelling support from Voyager tankers.
The ministry said the strike was conducted after dark to reduce the likelihood of civilians being in the area.
All the aircraft returned safely.
Image: John Healey. Pic: Reuters
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “This government will always act in the interests of our national and economic security.
“Royal Air Force Typhoons have successfully conducted strikes against a Houthi military target in Yemen and all UK aircraft and personnel have returned safely to base.
“We conducted these strikes, supported by the US, to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against UK and international shipping.”
Houthis a ‘persistent threat’ to ‘freedom of navigation’
Mr Healey said Houthi activities in the Red Sea are a “persistent threat” to “freedom of navigation”.
“A 55% drop in shipping through the Red Sea has already cost billions, fuelling regional instability and risking economic security for families in the UK,” he said.
“The government is steadfast in our commitment to reinforcing global stability and protecting British working people. I am proud of the dedication and professionalism shown by the service men and women involved in this operation.”
Follow The World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The group began launching attacks on shipping routes in November 2023 saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:31
Footage showing people being pulled from rubble has been released by Houthi rebels in Yemen